EC tells states to compensate securitymen too

With nearly 22 officials including security personnel on election-related duties having lost their lives, the Election Commission has expanded the ex-gratia compensation to cover all central security personnel and private persons deployed for election duty.

The commission would now treat a person on election duty the moment the person leaves his/her office or residence to report for any election-related duty, including training. If any mishap takes place during this period, it should be treated as having taken place on election duty if there is a casual connection between the death and election duty, EC secretary Sumit Mukherjee told state governments on Friday.

The commission had recently raised the ex-gratia compensation for death during poll duty to a minimum of `10 lakh and death due to election-related violence to Rs 20 lakh.

In his letter to states, Mukherjee added that private persons such as drivers and cleaners hired for deployment for election duty would also be eligible for the ex-gratia.

The EC communication follows complaints from the Union home ministry that some states were not extending the payment of ex-gratia to personnel of the central armed police forces killed in the recent rounds of violence during polling.